Battleboro is a former town and community in the city of
Rocky Mount in
Edgecombe and
Nash counties of
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, United States.
History
In 1835 Joseph S. Battle established Battle's Camp along the
Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad
Wilmington may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Wilmington, South Australia, a town and locality
**District Council of Wilmington, a former local government area
**Wilmington railway line, a former railway line
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.
The settlement was initially located entirely in
Edgecombe County, North Carolina
Edgecombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,900. Its county seat is Tarboro.
Edgecombe County is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
, but in 1871 the county line was altered to run along the railroad and Battle's Camp straddled both Edgecombe and
Nash counties.
[ In 1873 the community was incorporated as the town of Battleboro. By 1900 the town had 229 residents. Around that time the community had a strong economy and hosted an oil mill, sawmill, gristmill, ice plant, music shop, and barbershop. Two years later the business district was destroyed in a fire, but it was later rebuilt. By 1990 the town had grown to include 447 residents. In April 1994, a black rights group, Concerned Citizens for Battleboro, initiated a boycott of local white-owned businesses in protest of alleged harassment by authorities after a black woman was maced by a police officer and arrested for intervening in a traffic stop involving her niece. The boycott garnered national media attention and forced the town's largest grocery store to close.
Over the next few years many residents of the Battleboro began urging that the town be annexed by the larger city of Rocky Mount, mostly to receive cheaper government services. The all-white Battleboro Board of Commissioners repeatedly refused to consider the matter, leading racial minorities in the town to accuse the board of discrimination. On June 4, 1996, residents of the community voted in a nonbinding referendum 132–34 in favor of annexation.]
References
Sources
* {{cite book, last = Fleming, first = Monika S., title = Rocky Mount and Nash County, publisher = Arcadia Publishing, date = 1998, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5WZcyJNNV1gC, isbn = 9780738553184
Populated places established in 1835
Nash County, North Carolina
Edgecombe County, North Carolina